Lucky Number 7
by Lipton Lee
Summary: He’d like to believe that. But he knows. He knows that he’s curious about what he could have had. What he could have been.


Summary: He'd like to believe that. But he knows. He knows that he's curious about what he could have had. What he could have been.

Spoilers: Not many

_Lucky Number Seven_

He doesn't know why he's here. In this town. In this place. It's exactly how he remembers with its white picket fences, and its smiling children. The gazebo is still beautiful. The shops are still the same well-kept, quaint businesses.

He doesn't know why he's here.

He'd like to believe that. But he knows. He knows that he's curious about what he could have had. What he could have been.

Never mind the fact that he hasn't seen her since they broke up, twelve years ago. Or that he's been married twice since then.

He pulls up in front of the house and sits back with the car in park. It's not a very big house, but it's not tiny. It's white, and has a few houseplants on the porch, along with a bench. There's a nondescript house matt sitting in front of the door.

He sighs deeply and turns the car off, before getting out. He straightens his shirt, and walks up the driveway to the porch and finally the front door. He knocks decisively and waits.

After a few moments the door swings open, and he looks down at the small boy standing there, looking up at him. His skin is an olive shade, and his hair is very messy and dark. His eyes give him away though.

He looks down at the little boy and cracks a smile. "Hi, there. Is your mommy home?"

"Jack! Jack, what did I say about…"

The female voice that's carried to the door dies down as she comes into view. Her brown hair is put up into a messy knot, and she's wearing no shoes, though she's dressed in a business skirt suit and stockings.

Logan grins. "Hey, there, Ace."

Rory picks up the little boy protectively. "Logan…what…what are you doing here?"

He shrugs. "I was in the neighborhood."

She nods skeptically. "Stars Hollow isn't exactly in any sort of neighborhood you usually frequent if I remember correctly."

"Can't I just visit an old friend?" he asks with a good-natured smile.

"A friend you haven't spoken to in twelve years," Rory reminds him, leaning against the doorframe. "A friend whose wedding invitation you never RSVP'd."

"I was detained."

"Oh?"

"Mexico…it was Finn's fault."

She has to smile a little. "Always is." She sets Jack down. "Jack, this is an old friend of mine. His name is Mr. Huntzberger."

"Logan's fine. Mr. Huntzberger is my father."

"And how is he?"

"Old. Cranky. Same."

Rory nods.

Jack waves. "Can I go back to my book now?"

Rory grins and nods again. "Go on. Why don't you pick a new one out of the library for Daddy to read you tonight?"

Jack smiles and rushes off.

"Cute kid," Logan comments. "Looks like Jess."

"They are father and son."

"Right…and how is Jess?"

"Jess is great," Rory smiles. "He's helping Luke out at the diner today."

"That's nice of him…I hope he has a real job…"

Rory nods slowly. "That's right…you don't read too often…His latest book came out last week."

"How nice."

"Made the best seller's list."

"Bravo."

Rory smiles sadly. "What are you doing here, Logan?"

"I was curious," he admits. "To see how you were doing."

"Well…" she walks out of the house and leaves the door open. She sits on the bench. "I just got back from a press summit in France yesterday."

"How'd that go?"

"Great." She smiles genuinely. "Jess showed up at the airport with coffee, and Jack gave me the most hideous flowers I've ever seen."

"Still addicted to coffee?"

"Is that even a question?"

"Right."

"So what about you?" Rory asks. "What are you doing these days?"

"Uh…well…"

She waits, but he doesn't continue and she nods.

"I know what you're thinking," he says.

"Oh?"

"You're pitying me."

"Am I?"

"Yup."

Rory shakes her head. "You're wrong."

Logan blinks at her. "Am I?"

"Yup."

"So what were you thinking?"

She laughs a little. "How long it's going to take Jack to pick out a book."

He closes his mouth and nods. "You're really happy, huh?"

She sits back and thinks about this, looking up at the porch's ceiling. "Well…I'm still waiting for that whole humidity thing to go away…but other than that…yeah. I am very happy."

He stares at her. "You always were a weird one…"

Rory smiles at him. "Maybe that's why you liked me."

"Yeah," Logan tells her. "I mean…aside from the hot body, the brain and the sex…yeah, the quirks were a turn-on." He sits next to her on the bench and still looks at her. "How did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"This. The dream job, and the husband and the kid."

She smirks at him. "As much as I would like to teach you how to catch a boy's eye…"

"You know what I mean."

She shrugs. "It was hard. But I wanted it. All of it. And I did everything I could to get it."

He nods slowly, taking all this in, and then gets up. "It was good seeing you."

Rory smiles up at him. "What number am I?"

"What?"

"Don't play," she orders in her mommy voice. He never thought of her as having one, but she does, and she just used it on him. "You're not going to tell me I'm the first old girlfriend you've randomly dropped in on."

He cracks the smile that used to win her over as he backs away from her, heading back to his car. "Lucky number seven."

"Only two-hundred and fifty three more to go," she chuckles.

"Ace, you wound me!" he cries, gripping his heart. "There were only two-hundred and forty."

"Bye, Logan."

He waves and gets back into his car.

She watches him drive off, and then gets to her feet as she hears Jack calling her name, asking if she can have more than one book for bedtime. She snickers. "Two! No more, no less! Two shall be the number that you choose, and the number that you shall choose will be two!" She closes the door behind her.


End file.
